June 2016 Member Spotlight: Rafael Moscatel, IGP, CRM

ARMA received the following nomination from April Dmytrenko, CRM, FAI, for the Member Spotlight:

Meet Rafael Moscatel, IGP, CRM

Rafael Moscatel is a Certified Records Manager (CRM) and Information Governance Professional (IGP) with more than 20 years of experience implementing world-class records retention, data governance, and compliance programs for large enterprises. He designed process transformations, led team-building efforts, and spearheaded change management initiatives in a variety of complex and highly regulated industries. His expertise includes developing document management strategies, decommissioning legacy systems, performing risk assessments, and performing audit remediation.

Rafael truly understands his field and specifically IG and technology. He was instrumental in rolling out the enterprise-wide program at Paramount Pictures. Now he is working for Farmers Group, where he has established an outstanding IG framework from which to continue to support an effective program. He is proactive, strategic, and not only a talented RIM professional but an excellent business professional. He develops outstanding collaborative relationships, understands the value of senior management support and involving the business units, and is a strategic risk taker.

Moscatel lives and works in Los Angeles. He serves as the director of information governance for Farmers Group, Inc. He has been an ARMA member for 12 years.

Please join me and some of my esteemed colleagues at the Annual ARMA-GLA Spring conference taking place this April at the Microsoft Technology Center in Playa Vista on April 15th, 2016!

Our Annual Spring Conference is back and better than ever!!

THE FUTURE IS NOW: Managing Digital Records

Join your peers in the records and information management field for a full day of sessions, panels, interactive exchange, and NETWORKING!

Leading RIM and Information Governance Professionals with expertise in corporate, government, and law firms will be sharing insights, case studies, and perspectives on moving into a e-records environment, including Classification, Retention, Repositories, Technology, and General Workflow.

The extent to which any organization can reduce its dependency on paper is largely determined by laws and the industry regulations it faces, the technology available to it and how well its leaders manage change, internally as well as for customers.

Here are some thoughts on how to begin solving the paper problem around your office:

Understand the affordances of paper –One of the most thorough examinations of the issue of paper and its role in our lives and workplaces came in 2002 when MIT press published The Myth of the Paperless Office. The book’s findings make a case for the “affordances of paper” and stress that to reduce paper production and consumption we must understand the underlying habits and processes driving how our clients and colleagues work.

Attorneys for example often require a contextual or “case at a glance” perspective that a chronological or issue focused file offers… a “story telling” approach to presenting information which can’t always be matched even with the best software. Similarly, auditors or project managers will often work with and create aggregated records which serve a specific purpose for which imaging might be overkill or too costly. And contrary to popular belief, there still exist quite a few scenarios where it remains more affordable, practical and efficient to even store information in paper form. Conversion costs and risks required to maintain the digital lifecycle of infrequently referenced documents and avoid bitrot* can often exceed those associated with retaining the same materials in paper form.

Make the right policy changes with executive level support –Every Records or Information Governance policy initiative or project your business undertakes should have senior level executive support and reflect the best practices within your industry.

Here are some policy and procedural ideas to consider that can act as catalysts for change.

Get a Retention Policy / Schedule, implement it and regularly enforce it -A Retention Schedule (often in line with a data map) is the most effective tool for properly managing records and information and its necessity cannot be understated. It not only protects an organization and keeps paper and electronic storage costs low, it gives executives a tool for understanding and navigating the massive network of silos and records their businesses create.

Institute an E-signature Policy for all contracts under a specified financial threshold

De-duplicate emails and all other electronic content repositories systematically

Identify where duplicates are created, determine why and what can be done to prevent them going forward

Take a “final draft and / or executed version” approach to your document lifecycle rules

Establish “uniform” email retention rules. For example – enforced retention period, tools and rules for what to do with attachments

Standardize e-mail signatures corporate wide

Discourage personal chronological or “work” files

Place restrictions on file shares and acceptable file formats within repositories

Evaluate all forms and documents in all files to identify consolidation opportunities and streamline workflows

Like many Information Management practitioners, I’ve seen a lot of re-branding of Records Management and its related disciplines over the years and as such have been very skeptical of Information Governance as a distinct concept. I am always weary of what may appear to be product or vendor driven initiatives. I worry about organizations losing focus as they move from buzzword to buzzword and I’m a little exhausted of having to pay for certifications. Full disclosure – I’m a Certified Records Manager and an Information Governance Professional.

However, with the release of the Information Governance Initiative’s Annual Report, I realize that it may be time to reconsider my reservations and back this effort to not only get control of our information, but to raise the profile of information managers and the value of our everyday work. The IG initiative is well coordinated and may be the best opportunity to date to help the C-Suite truly understand how valuable proper information management and governance really is.

We are proud to publish our first Annual Report on the state of information governance today. In this comprehensive 50 page report, loaded with infographics that information governance practitioners can take and freely use, we examine IG as a concept, as a market, and as an operational model. In other words, what is it, can I buy it, and how do I actually do IG? We advance a definition of IG based on overwhelming support from the IGI community. We identify typical IG projects and how much organizations are spending on them. We advance a RACI Matrix for IG, and provide a host of of other insights and recommendations based on extensive benchmarking interviews, surveys, and research days. – Release from iginitiative.com.

In the infographic provided below by the Information Governance Initiative, we can see the many facets of information governance across a typical enterprise. As Records Managers and IT folks, we are already involved in so many of these areas that it does make sense to start thinking about our work holistically and defining it as involving “coordinated functions.” As information and it’s formats proliferate at light speed and organizations continue to be overwhelmed, having a set of tools built around a well-defined concept of information strategy and management can be helpful. By doing so we may also be able to create new opportunities for collaboration and consolidation.

I like to think of Information Governance, in some ways, as a summary of a DataMap, an overall view of how information flows in and out of an organization, revealing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats we all face. It allows us to step out of the area under our control and influence momentarily and see the broader picture, which gives us the perspective and insight we need to work smarter and more efficiently in our own groups. Continue reading →

It’s been 12 years since I first read Abigal J. Sellen and Richard H.R. Harper’s book, The Myth of the Paperless Office. It remains one of my favorite no nonsense analysis into the subject.

This bold and insightful analysis by two Microsoft employees into the psychological and practical reasons why certain business processes continue to rely on paper remains relevant even a decade after its publication. The book is especially helpful for records and information governance consultants more intent on providing their clients with a true understanding of the nature of their processes than selling them software solutions driven by buzz phrases including “The Paperless Office.”

Companies should certainly move toward imaging and digitization when feasible but the best solutions always require a sophisticated approach to rebuilding processes that recognize both opportunities, limitations and human nature.

Below is the blurb on the book from Amazon.com

Over the past thirty years, many people have proclaimed the imminent arrival of the paperless office. Yet even the World Wide Web, which allows almost any computer to read and display another computer’s documents, has increased the amount of printing done. The use of e-mail in an organization causes an average 40 percent increase in paper consumption. In The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper use the study of paper as a way to understand the work that people do and the reasons they do it the way they do. Using the tools of ethnography and cognitive psychology, they look at paper use from the level of the individual up to that of organizational culture.Central to Sellen and Harper’s investigation is the concept of “affordances” — the activities that an object allows, or affords. The physical properties of paper (its being thin, light, porous, opaque, and flexible) afford the human actions of grasping, carrying, folding, writing, and so on. The concept of affordance allows them to compare the affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. They can then ask what kinds of devices or systems would make new kinds of activities possible or better support current activities. The authors argue that paper will continue to play an important role in office life. Rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office, we should work toward a future in which paper and electronic document tools work in concert and organizational processes make optimal use of both.

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Rafael Moscatel is a results driven executive with over twenty years of success in implementing world class records retention, data governance and compliance programs for large enterprises. He has an extensive background in driving long range corporate planning strategies, from risk and audit remediation to spearheading change management initiatives within highly regulated industries. All views expressed on this site are his own and do not represent the opinions of any entity whatsoever with which he has been, is now, or will be affiliated.

Join me April 13th at 10:30 at the AIIM Conference 2018

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